Red Bull ended the 2016 Formula 1 season as the best-of-the-rest behind Mercedes, but it was an eventful year for the Milton Keynes-based squad.

With 30 points from the first two races, Red Bull’s season sprang into life in China. Daniel Ricciardo seized the lead from Nico Rosberg at the start while Daniil Kvyat charged into the same corner and frightened Sebastian Vettel into a crash with his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen. A puncture dropped Ricciardo down the order – although he recovered to fourth – while Kvyat claimed third behind Rosberg and the irate Vettel.

Things went downhill fast for the Russian driver at his home race in Sochi when he triggered another first lap crash with Vettel – but there was no dispute about who was to blame this time. The incident also wrecked Ricciardo’s race and the Red Bull bosses opted to switch Kvyat with Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen for the next race in Spain.

While many decried the apparent ruthlessness of the team’s decision, Verstappen scored a record-breaking win in Barcelona and the rest is history.

Ricciardo, already annoyed at the Red Bull strategy call in Spain that dropped him from the lead to fourth, responded with a sensational pole position lap in Monaco. The Australian driver should have won the race too, but a botched pitstop left him behind Lewis Hamilton and frustrated in second place.

From there, Red Bull’s fortunes ebbed and flowed with the performances of its drivers. Ricciardo had a disappointing run following Monaco, while Verstappen notched up more podiums.

But the Dutch driver began to court more trouble for his vigorous defensive driving in mid-season, just Ricciardo delivered four podiums in five races and a near-win in Singapore.

Red Bull ended the year as comfortably the second-best team, having outpaced Ferrari at most races from China onwards, but questions remained over its strategy calls, particularly in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

But in a season when Mercedes was generally untouchable once again, it was Red Bull that picked up the pieces if the Silver Arrows faltered. After Verstappen’s triumph in Spain, which followed the Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg lap one crash, Ricciardo won in Malaysia after the Briton’s engine failure.

Ricciardo vs Verstappen

Ricciardo drove superbly throughout 2016, other than his post-Monaco blip between Canada and Silverstone, and his pole at the Principality was one of the highlights of the season. Others were his spirited charge after Rosberg in Singapore and his robust defence from Verstappen, which sealed the win in Malaysia.

Verstappen’s world-class 2016 performances confirmed what many suspected when he joined F1 aged 17 in 2015. He certainly had some negative moments – such as his Monaco crashes, the incidents with the Ferrari drivers in Belgium and the lap one spin in Abu Dhabi – but he put in many stunning performances, capped off with his win in Spain and wet-weather master class in Brazil.

What did you make of Red Bull in 2016? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below or head over to the JA on F1 Facebook page for more discussion.

112 comments

Max vs Dan is now the biggest driver battle in F1, I can't wait to see how it pans out. I don't underestimate Ricciardo's abilities, but there is more to come from Max and Dan certainly will have his hands full. I predict fireworks controversy, and contact!

It's all fun and games whipping a 4 time champ and hapless Russians, but a very quick young kid with no respect for reputations will test anyone's cheery disposition. Especially if a championship is at stake.

Yep big time fall outs in 2017 at Red Bull. Handbags flying . One side you'll have Dr.Marko and DM backing Max (with Horner being the yes man to the owners) and on the other you will ........Daniel Ricciardo and his team of........empty seats not again....! "Oh look I've got Mark Webber on my s s s side". As the end credit music from the "1980s Incredible Hulks tv series" with Bill Bixby as David Banner trying to thumb a lift on a dusty freeway.

Fireworks at RB? Yes. A couple of young bruisers driving for the same constructor with no team orders and joint No.1 status = conflict/turmoil/blood on the walls/bruised egos..........To paraphrase St Francis of Assisi:

The biggest clashes will be with Max having the no.1 status at Red Bull . It's completely obvious that he is the prime asset in the eyes of the owners at Red Bull. Expect Ricciardo to look glum numerous times in 2017 as Red Bull cater to Max . Ricciardo will be the new Webber . An Aussie swimming against the tidal sea of Orange wearing Dutch Fans.Lewis and Mercedes will be the team still to beat. Powerful engine heavier cars . A Renault engine with Newey aero will still be too heavy for a light weight Tag engine.Expect Mclaren Honda to be closer to Mercedes than Red Bull. They have an ex Aero Red Bull designer. Ferrari will be a mixed bag of wheel nuts and good engine. Depending on who cracks the whip it may be great season or a great ache.Williams maybe the dark horse cheaper Mercedes engines and Paddy know how may bring them back onto the podium.As for Haas it all depends on Ferrari development seeing as 80% of the car is sourced outside of their workshop.Renault need to perform better than Red Bull . Plain and simple.Manor The death throws begin.Toro Rosso same same. Mid pack running with Sainz Jnr leaping to another team unless he gets Ricciardo seat in 2018.Sauber going south like Manor before Ferrari buy them and turn them into Alfa Romeo F1.Force India going strength to strength now that they have a bigger division of the honey pot.

I don't expect McLaren to be the best of the rest. For one thing we've yet to see that Honda can build a competitive engine. For another McLaren haven't built a decent chassis in about a decade. They were flattered for a long time by the Mercedes engine but by their last season with Mercedes they were the worst of all the teams that had a merc engine, behind even Williams and Force India.Part of the problem is that McLaren are convinced they've built a decent car and are let down by the engine. They're wrong. They have a weak engine, sure, but their chassis is a long way behind Red Bull. Last season and again this season Red Bull managed to win races even though they had a poor engine due to the excellence of their chassis. We haven't seen anything like that from McLaren in a long, long time. Having one designer from Red Bull may help but isn't going to revolutionise everything. It might be that the single biggest difference to that team is Ron Dennis being pushed out.

BK Force India outsources stuff maybe not as much as but It seems to be the way to go unless you are a manufacturer. McLaren Honda could put their engine/ chassis package together smaller but I think Honda has a turbo design that is bad.

Sir Tease Enough with "The Baby rubbish" time to grow up.Firstly it's Auto sport that voted DR .You forget that The Team Heads voted LH as the the best and fastest driver in 2016. I'll go with the bosses decision always and not a cranky magazine that went downhill when Joe Saward left.The fastest person on track was Lewis.Max V will be no.1 driver whatever you say. It's plain and simple Max V is young Red Bull appeal to the youth. DR is not in Max V league. You can guild it all you like. DR is in for a diluted position in Team Read Bull or should it be called Team Red Max V.No babies and no Aussie No.1, only a No.2 ironed on super glued and treble stitched number on DR. Mark Webber Revisited. Baby tissues infused with lavender included to eliviate that constant sore feeling (if symptoms continue ...please consult your agent for a rapid move to Mclaren in 2018 or expect a demotion to Toronto Rosso as Sainz Jnr is waiting).Ps Lewis was on front cover of TIME Magazine which is a global publication.While Auto sport is catering for specific target group, with limited online access . The vote can only be read if you subscribe or buy the magazine. Which limits it's appreciation of your so called King of speed....(as voted by a limited bunch of journos & not F1 Team bosses).

Why would they make MV No 1?Ric is faster in quali and makes less mistakes in races. Autosport driver of the year. Faster than Hamilton in any completely direct comparison.Gonna be a lot going on next year. It'll only take a couple of costly moments by MV... spins, penalties, teenage mistakes... and RB would look pretty silly investing everything in him. Not gonna happen. Plus he'll have a target on his back next year. You think Ham is going to negotiate on track when Max is coming through to challenge. Honeymoon is over baby.

Ps TIME Magazine is a highly regarded journal.Auto Sport lost its way many decades ago.I still have the original Auto Sports from Joe Saward erase and they were informative, funny and full of filler and adverts. The magazine is definitely a Cranky gear grinder read. Read other journals they are way way better.

Firstly I'm not religious so Faith means nothing . I stand corrected regarding the Badger which is based in Africa India and Middle East and is a placental mammal. While the Tas had a different birthing process.Regarding Red Bull it's definitely MV as no.1 your faith will be test Sir Tease and I'll be grinning as The Flying Dutchman grabs the limelight from the Aussie. In race strategy in Bosses favouritism to MV and the impending grey gloom cloud over DR . Only one race in Australia after which it's Max all the way in Red Bull Media advertising. He will bring the new fans in and DR progressively will end up playing second fiddle Webber style. Sadly that's the law of The Red Bull Jungle.

Dufus My money is on Max V all the way. As gifted as D Ricciardo is. Red Bull have Sainz Jnr to please (He is itching to leave for a better team and they don't want to loose him to Mercedes as Horner said on BBC radio interview). For DR the only possibility is Mclaren or Ferrari or Williams (Ferrari boss Marchionne wants Lewis)So Mclaren Williams . Mercedes will stick with Lewis and Bottas as this may well be a great pairing. Max V and Sainz Jnr will be Red Bulls pairing. Both are young bucks with a solid future. I can only see DR in the prodigal Webber role ..The fall guy . Expect serious infighting between the pro Max Red Bull owners and DR in the lone honey badger role. Besides the honey badgers are being wiped out by a virus in Australia and its island Tasmania . So saving the honey badger may be an uphill struggle.

BK, i expect you're right, but my silver lining is that there will be plenty of good seats opening up in 2018 -When RIC does get the the Webber treatment, I imagine that he would get approaches from MB, Ferrari and Macca. I expect RIC V VES to only last one season in the same team.

Isn't every pre season article always stating "That next year will be exciting?"I know it's glass half full. But nobody knows how anything will be until at least 4 Grand Prix into the season. Pirelli tyres need to be solid and the cars need to be alot tougher as will the engines. Expect structural failures on cars from the less affluent teams. Plus driver fitness will be key. The overtaking will be alot more difficult with larger cars and tighter tracks (unless they redevelop and widen the tracks).

I would argue that DRS be removed permanently, it is unnecessary. A sterile former of overtaking. Time to just have the turbo boost with a limited access to boost per race. Perhaps per season, an allocation set in stone. That will be exciting for the drivers and the audience. Having to use it wisely on specific tracks where the faster cars don't need to over-use the boost button. While slower cars attempt to boost up.A standardised jury of officials that travel to the Grand Prix throughout the season. No more Honourable ex F1 drivers on a weekend jolly adjudicating races. A fixed group with uniformed decisions and appropriate outcomes regarding inappropriate behaviour by teams, drivers, tyre manufacturers, sponsors & spectators. Otherwise a sporting and safe 2017 on track. Less hate and more constructive debating in the new season. The last one maybe difficult for some.

I like your idea, but your suggestion would definitely produce fewer overtakes, and these days the quality of a race is measured by the number of overtakes.

It's a bit like soccer. Unlike AFL or even Rugby, which produce multiple goals per game, soccer often produces 2-1 or 0-1 scores. So would soccer be better if they made the goals twice as wide and twice as high. You would have a lot more scoring, but would it make the game better?

So what they've done with f1 is the equvelent of making the goals much bigger, effectively making the overtaking super easy and more frequent. But does that make it better? I would argue not.

Jdr, there was nothing wrong with the overtaking in the 70s, 80s and 90s. There was less of it than there is now, because it was difficult. And it was difficult because overtaking another car with similar performance to yours IS difficult.

You can make it easy by giving the car behind a performance boost, which is what we have now, but then what's so special about that?

By the way, the 2016 season was one of the dullest, most predictable seasons I've ever seen. Versatappen and the nico/Lewis battle did spice it up towards the end, but would you say 2016 with all those overtakes was better than the seasons with fewer overtakes such as 2010, or 2008, or 2007 or 1994 or 1989? I don't think so.

Spot on. Also with an extra 200 KG of downforce from the massive "barn door" wings, the extra aerodynamic buffeting and wider rubber will mean following in the wake of another car within 9 tenths will be almost impossible on fast corners.

It's Newton's 3rd law (reactivity) - that for for every downforce 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 there is an equal and opposite aerodynamic turbulence/drag 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. Dirty air - it's all good old Isaac's fault........damn you Newton!

Ah but TimW refer back to good old Isaac's 3rd law. Wider rubber means a great contact patch, so yes, more mechanical grip in the slower corners..............but, the consequence [reaction] of that extra girth is more drag which means greater aerodynamic buffeting at high speed............

As Newton would point out, the extra mechanical grip in the slower corners created by the "Big Mac" tyres is denuded by the extra drag they create meaning more "dirty air" in the quick stuff! Newton's 3rd law implies, like capitalism, you don't get something for nothing when it comes to fluid dynamics...........

Do agree that the bigger wheels will mean more problems in pit stops and not just because of the size either - the greater forces exerted by the extra downforce in 2017 means the axles are likely to get much hotter [than in 2016], and of course, an overheating axle means a cross threaded or sticking wheel nut is much more likely...........

Gazboy. The wider tyres and track will create more mechanical grip in the slower and faster corners. The increase in frontal area will create more drag, slowing the cars in a straight line, and increasing the slip stream effect on straights for a following car. It does not necessarily follow that this will create more problems for following cars through corners though, the amount of "dirty air" produced by the lead car depends more on wing position and shape than overall frontal area, the following cars ability to deal with that dirty air depends on its own wing position and amount of mechanical grip produced.

In 2017:1. RBR will give us Vettel v Webber Part 2. I think we know who will be given which role.)2. RBR will be the team to beat. Unless someone think RBR wrote the new rules just to suit Merc, which I don't think.3. Racing will be processional, cars to hard to overtake.4. For 2018 Vettel and Ham will swap positions.

I'm not sure its Red Bull pairing we should worry about regardless of where the car is at. I think both guys have a very candid approach to racing and enough respect to deal with what comes. I'm really hoping its more of a mixed bag in terms of teams.There is a possibility that either Ferrari or RBR will get wins in 2017 and possibily fighting with Mercedes more often. Or it could be just more of the same. I hope Im very wrong but Im not looking forward to whomever Mercedes put in that other car- its not going to be very pretty.

I m actually interested to see how both Ferrari drivers go. I sense Kimi will be very keen to finish F1 on a high and Seb trying to win back credibility after a very poor 2016. I cant imagine any team mate would be happy with how Seb drove this year and we may see a more vocal Kimi if more of Ferrari strategies are needed to keep Seb in front.

RBR's driver setup with Ricciardo and Vesrtappen sure looks like the fight to watch in 2017. VES has had an awesome season in 2016 and will sure be looking to gain the 1st driver position in the team. All depends if he puts in a good drive for 2017.

RIC will start feeling like Webber in RBR and should be able to hold his ground through 2017 before making to the move in 2018. Ferrari, AMG Merc and McLaren all look like future teams that would have a place for him. The true fireworks will erupt once Kvyat gets back to RBR and drives alongside VER who took his seat. That would be an interesting show if it is ever gonna happen.

"The true fireworks will erupt once Kvyat gets back to RBR and drives alongside VER who took his seat. That would be an interesting show if it is ever gonna happen."Never... if Daniel Ricciardo or Max Verstappen leave RBR duringor at the end of 2017, Carlos Sainz will take that seat. Apart from that I predict that Sainz will have a much better year in '17 because he will not be forced to drive an outdated Ferrari power unit anymore. His STR will be fitted with a brand new Renault engine.

IMO RedBull's season is overated.RB has made fireworks... flashlights, smoke and noise but no substance.Of course Ferrari's - self-confessed - poor season helped them....Another Red Bullseye hit by Hell-mouth Marko.Gutsy and ballsy move to replace Kvyat by Max.Kamikaze commercial/market move but successful sportive one.It tells a lot about RedBull. For people that doesn't know, Marko won the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans edition, driving a Martini-Porsche 917K.Marko set a distance record which remained unbeaten until the 2010 - 39 years. ...Who really needs to raise his game is Horner.As pointed out, RB race strategy has hurt Ricciardo a lot in Barcelona and Monaco.Also RB's best results came from race where they made less pits than Merc/Ferrari: Barcelona and Suzuka.As a rule of thumb, whenever you hv the best chassis and weaker engine, endurance is a strategy to go.Instead Horner seldon opted for sprint campaigns that cause that useless overtaking fest.The trophy of The Most Overtakes of Season stays beside of The Winter Pre-season Testing Championship... in my pants. Considering the dominant Merc-AMG scenario and the only winning matters, it's undertandable that RB would split strategies among its drivers: one would be benefited the most while the other would suffer.Eventhough, poor job and weakest link in the chain....Mad Max is following the footsteps of Senna.I ask myself if Max could have possibly done a better job this year with pre-season testing w/ RBR already.But I'm glad that Max started at Barcelona. Adaptability is a quality of the champions. Darwin's survival of the most apt at its best.Senna-like, Max was forcing his bomb-dive-overtakes this season, often crashing into other drivers. I don't know if it was on purpose, but Max was doing a Mental Programation of the field: "if you see me making an overtake move, get out of the way or we will crash".This "quality" was one of the advantages of Senna compared to Prost: fast pace overtaking, specially backmarkers. Senna-like, the enfant terrible is annoying the field w/ his tactics and in 2017 we will see a lot of pay-backs from the Ferrari and Force India boys....Hope they sort out / reduce the powertrain handicap in 2017.

Matthew, that's s good point about backing a driver to avoid taking points off each other. The problem is neither Red Bull man would tolerate being number two, expect ignored radio calls if they try it.

i cannot see why there should be fireworks or whatever they call it at redbull next season. verstappen feels he owes redbull forever for gifting him the youngest f1 race winner of all time title. ricciardo feels redbull cheated him out of a victory and feels they owe him so they have different motivations. verstappen will always obey redbull and ricciardo will always ask for favours expecting redbull to give him it.

Versatappen does not give the impression that he feels as though he owes anybody anything.

Riccardo will be aware that if he does not at least match Versatappen, his market value will take a nosedive. Thus we have a recipe for fireworks. And if red bull can match Mercedes next year, we will have a four- way ding-Dong for the title. Last time we had this was 2008, I believe, just before they "fixed" F1 with the 2009 regs.

There's every chance that despite what quite a few pundits are saying,Red Bull could be down in 4th place next year.This would definitely cause some temper tantrums with both the drivers and the team management.This will potentially lead to Danny Ric moving to Mclaren as suggested by this site.What has surprised me about the team though is the strategy call slip ups. I guess it just goes to show that you've gotta be on top of absolutely every part of your game in F1 these days.

We could very well see Red Bull fall backwards relative to the competition. As far as the Red Bull driver battle, I expect Ricciardo to get the better of Max; Max will get frustrated when the team doesn't give him the advantage.

James I actually agree with Dren that RBR may actually start to struggle towards the end of 2017 due to engine updates . With RBR probably set to continue to trump the works Renault team in terms overall performance next year my feeling is Renault will start getting very irritated by this and will therefore chose to give Renault much greater priority over in season PU updates towards the end of '17 and through '18' to get Renault Sport F1 to be the leading Renault powered team- leaving a furious RBR looking for a new PU partner in the long term after 2018. Do you think Renault would do that RBR James?

Redbull have basically been there to sweep up the crumbs when Merc failed.They have also been the team that gave the most entertainment this year, on and of the track. Looking forward to seeing Max develop even more next year. And hoping to see at least a 2 team race, but hopefully 4, for the WCC/WDC. But I'm not getting my hopes up to high.

I think Ricciardo has the toughest job in the world of motorsport, and frankly I think it will be beyond him to succeed.Being paired up with someone like Verstappen is just like being paired up with a Senna or a Schumacher. Over time these guys drain their teammates of confidence because you just know they are willing to take it further than anybody else when it matters. That's due to these few guys having supreme self-confidence.

Verstappen came on strong against Ricciardo towards the end of the 2016-season, just like he did to Sainz in 2015. I fully expect Verstappen to take another step for 2017 whereas Ricciardo is close to his peak.

People seem to forget that Verstappen is only 19 and has very little experience in single seaters, he's got a huge potential for improvement. I have never seen a driver come through the ranks with more potential, and I have followed F1 since the seventies.Many will say that only time will show whether he's all that, and that is true for many drivers. But when you are talking about the very few special ones you just know right away. Everybody in the know knew Senna was going to be among the greats after that magic wet-weather drive in Monaco. Everybody in the know allready knew in 1993 that Schumacher was the next great in F1. Likewise everybody in the know are well aware that Verstappen will only grow in skill and confidence untill there's nobody left to challenge him as the undisputed top driver in F1.

RBR clearly had the best driver line up and will do again in 2017. Maybe Verstappen will get the better of Ricciardo next year.? I fancy them to be snapping at Mercedes heels unless someone pulls a double diffuser out of the bag (2009) and runs away with both titles. I am looking forward to testing like never before.!!

It could have been interesting if Sainz went to Mercedes. Then he could have had the opportunity to drive against Verstappen. He was pissed about Verstappen getting promoted to RB and not him.. But not going to happen.. But still! damn...

Despite my expectation that RB will pull a Webber on Danny Ric, Danny's used the RB loo a few times and has read MW's hand writing on the stall door. He came into the team when Vet was king and dealt with it in the very best way you could imagine. They then threw the young Russian stud at him who promptly fell on his own sword. Along comes the new messiah and despite some strategy and pit stop flops (which he took hard), he learned from the experience and bounced back on top, with his bottom lip in tact. If there's a character on the grid that can deal with the BS that everyone is expecting RB to throw at him, it's Danny Ric.I just hope it doesn't interfere with his title aspirations when he is at the peak of his powers.If RB are smart they can have multiple WDC's over a period longer than Vettels reign....(and no, i'm not suggesting they favour Ric over Ves -just that they hold off giving Ves the nudge along!)

ricciardo's greatest talent is off track. much greater off track than on it so he is most unlikely to experience what webber did. webber shot his mouth off due to his insecurity on track. ricciardo is the complete opposite..

The media is in danger of over hyping Red Bull's 2017 prospects. History is on Red Bull's side when it has come to reg changes (2009-13), but Adrian Newey has designed a few botch jobs at McLaren (MP4-16, MP4-18, MP4-19 & MP4-21). With the widening of the cars for 2017, his famous tight packages may not have the desired effect as with previous designs. Of course, reliability is not his forte either.

Max may well suffer third season syndrome, as he adapts to driving faster cars and crashes out too often. He may outpace Ricciardo again, but his maturity needs to develop before a real championship assault.

I would be interested if other engine manufacturers can catch up in lubricants? Mercedes was so sucessful because of Personas. The cooling was smaller on the MB cars causing less drag. This allows other parts such as the nose being smaller.

Renault is supposed to have a deal with BP yet Red Bull seems to be with Exxon / Mobile. Honda now has a deal with BP but their turbo is smaller and connected to the engine. With this setup McLaren could have the least drag caused by the demands of the engine but I don't think a scroll compressor designed like that will work as good as an axial compressor.

I think this year will be like last. Whomever can run their engine hotter while maintaining power and relability will win. I look for either Red Bull or Renault to catch up eventually.

At first I thought 2017 would be more of the same at least at the beginning of the season. Maybe without the token system progress can be made by Red Bull or others. I don't have confidence in Honda as they can't beat Toyota in Jaran or Chevy / Ilmour in the US.

I wonder if the Exon / Mobile deal with Red Bull is just sponsorship or do they provide lubricants? So you see the engine affects the Aero an vice versa. MB would have to collapse before anyone else could win often but this could happen within the team.

James why is there no discussion about the abolition of the token system in 2017? This is likely to have almost an equal equalising effect as the aero changes as most manufacturers knew where they were deficient to MB but couldn't do a lot about it to now, this could be the most exciting aspect of the sport over the next 12 months

RBR still have their work cut out to deliver a car that can challenge Mercedes. I personally think too much faith is being placed in Mr Newey; Mercedes' engineering know-how and strength in depth has evolved to the point that they are second to none these days. We have never seen anything like this level of team professionalism in the history of F1. It may have seemed that Red Bull closed down the gap in the 2nd half of 2016, but Merc would have shut down work on the car very early once they knew how strong it was. Unless RBR can bridge that gap, it will matter a lot less than people think which of their drivers can gain the upper hand. I personally think Max could have a bit of a tougher year.. his card is marked now, and there seems to be a phase in every driver's career where they believe their own press and think they should be winning every race, and if the car isn't right at the sharp end, they tend to overdrive it and not get the most out of it.

I'm not convinced. Mercedes built the best engine by a mile and every other engine manufacturer was prevented from closing the gap by the development tokens system.I believe that the Red Bull chassis is still better than Mercedes, let down only by its motor, and I think Mercedes know it and that was why they didn't want to supply Red Bull with engines. Turkeys don't vote for Xmas.